Kind of like lava lamps but better! These jellyfish are real. They have died of natural causes, been harvested by these lamp makers, frozen in liquid nitrogen and encased in crystalline epoxy. They glow in the dark, due to the jellyfishes’ natural bioluminescence.

The rainforest in Far North Queensland, Australia, has many wonderful treasures, one of the most striking being the spectacular glowing fungus which can be found on late night walks. This photo was taken after a night of quite a few long exposures capturing the otherworldly glow.

among bioluminescent organisms, fungi are the most rare and least well understood. only 71 of the more than 100,000 described fungal species emit a bioluminescent light, which, it is believed, serves to attract insects who then spread the fungal spores around. click pic for the four species seen here. photos by taylor lockwood, lanceaardvaarkau, steve axford, andnickybay

This is the mysterious spectacle of bioluminescence. Its hard not to revel in the beauty of this remarkable natural phenomenon. These glowing creatures are primarily a product of the ocean. They are the primary source of light in the largest and darkest area of habitable land on Earth, the deep sea. On land, they are most commonly seen as glowing fungus on wood (foxfire) or in the few families of luminous insects (fireflies).

“These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it.”

the japanese word for firefly is hotaro, which is thought to derive from ho taru, which literally means ‘to drip fire’. there are about two thousand species of firefly, but japan is notable for its two aquatic species, the genji and heike. only ten species are known to be aquatic in their larval stage.

despite the swarm of fireflies (known as a firefly contest) seen here, their numbers in japan are dropping due to pesticide use, which kills the river snails that firefly larvae eat. (click pic or link for photo x, x, x, x, x, x, x. see also previous firefly posts)